Gerhart Eisler

Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897-21 March 1968) was a German politician who was a prominent member of both the Communist Party of Austria and the Communist Party of Germany.

Biography
Gerhart Eisler was born in Leipzig, Saxony, German Empire on 20 February 1897 to a Jewish father and a Lutheran mother; he was the brother of fellow communist politician Ruth Fischer. He served in the Imperial German Army during World War I before joining the Communist Party of Austria under the influence of his sister, and he became a communist journalist in the Weimar Republic in 1921. He became a Comintern agent, and he was responsible for purging the Communist Party of China of spies and dissidents during the 1920s. In 1947, he was arrested in the United States for refusing to tell on other communists to the government, and he escaped to England before heading to East Germany. He died in 1968 during an official visit to Yerevan, Armenia, Soviet Union at the age of 71.